Products like the Kancheevaram sarees, Alphonso mangoes and Darjeeling and Assam tea are all patented, but your bhavnagari ganthia, patan patolas and Junagadh's kesar are not.
Products like the Kancheevaram sarees, Alphonso mangoes and Darjeeling and Assam tea are all patented, but your bhavnagari ganthia, patan patolas and Junagadh's kesar are not. Even as the state boasts of a range of sweets and other products that have a huge demand worldwide, it has not protected these products under Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act — a country or a place to which an origin of a product can be traced.
"More than 100 products from different parts of India have been patented at the intellectual property rights office but very few come from Gujarat" Rajesh Acharya, managing director of HK Acharya & Company, which specialises in patent and trademarks, told DNA. Acharya was talking on the sidelines of a seminar organised by MarkPatent.Org on 'Accelerating growth of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in global village'.
"An individual or an organisation cannot sell tea under the brand name of Assam tea or Darjeeling tea because these brands have been patented. However, if they still want to, then permission has to be sought from the respective brand association," he added.
Filing of a patent is not the only important thing, drafting the patent must also be taken into consideration. Acharya explained the difference between patent and copyright and said, "While advertising, performing arts and creative function all fall under copyright, patent usually encompasses software and similar products."
Sandeep Agarwal, senior director of market development at TESSERA, a company providing image enhancement intellectual property (IP), said, "There are very few countries that follow patent and copyright laws. Even America, one of the most developed countries does not have a law of this kind."
Agarwal also pointed out that the level of awareness among the people in India about filing for a patent has increased over the years. "Today, the citizens are more aware about filing for patents and credit for this goes to the association of our country with the World Trade Organisation (WTO)," he said.
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